Seeking Low-Cost Employee Engagement Strategies for 5000 Bank Staff During Recession

Hi all,

I have taken on a project with a bank. I need to formulate certain low-cost, high-engagement strategies for around 5000 employees there. Please let me know of certain low-cost and feasible strategies practiced in your organization to keep employees engaged during this recession.

Awaiting your reply.

Sir, you too can help out with some low-cost, high engagement strategies that can be adopted in these turbulent times.

An area that affects employee engagement is communications. If your company does not have any communication channel between management and staff, you can implement one. If your company already has communication in place, see how you can improve on it.

During a recession, when staff are concerned about both the company and their own future, regular, clear, and consistent communications can help manage employee expectations and alleviate employee anxieties. Since communication can be done using internal resources, it is also a low cost!

Autumn Jane

Hi Buzz,

Review their job profiles and understand why their morale is low. Your aim should be to identify the factors that make them feel passionate about their job. One can find out the real reasons by conducting an employee satisfaction survey, which should be the first step before making strategies. As Autumn Jane rightly said, communication is the best way to handle employees' issues.

Cheers, Rajat

Thank you a lot for your suggestions, guys. By this weekend, I need to submit my proposal to the bank regarding low-cost, high engagement strategies that can be adopted by them for around 5000 employees. After that, I am actually supposed to work on the implementation, keeping the low-cost factor in mind. Please tell me feasible solutions with actual implementation.

[Buzz] - Don't be shit scared. Before you launch yourself into the zone of engagement strategies, you need to understand the field. If I were you, I would suggest the below:

1. Need for an ESAT/Engagement Survey for the current workforce and the market (specify the areas you would stress): This will help you understand the pulse of the employees as well as the market.

2. Based on the analysis of point 1, you can rack your brains here for industry-specific responses, or you could interview some cool guys from your industry who are deeply engaged. What you are trying to do right now is going out into the wild. Try to get a feel of the terrain before you can make a difference. If you still need to work something out without doing the above... Google it :) Anyways, if you can send me the report, that would be great.

Regards, Trinity - Morpheus

Hi,

Here are some inputs from my end...

Hope your project has the following objectives:

1) To engage employees in the organizational initiatives.
2) To create a high impact in the minds of the people.
3) To realize the importance given to the employees.
4) To show care for employees' health and safety.
5) To retain talent and make the organization more competitive.

I would suggest the following programs:

a) Higher Education Stalls - make arrangements with leading institutes and set up classrooms in the office. Let the institute(s) run the program in the said classroom for the exclusive benefit of your employees. For self-improvement, employees would come forward and participate in the classes at their own cost. They need not run after office hours to somewhere else for classes; services are available at their doorstep. The organization(s) will recognize successful completion of the courses, and periodical feedback can be obtained from the faculties to measure effectiveness. Institutes would provide a good curriculum for them at a discounted price.

b) Communication Shop - since it is a bank and the majority of their employees need to be in touch with customers daily, it is imperative for them to improve communications. Set up a similar Toastmasters club, which will shape the communications and leadership qualities of your people.

c) Work-Life Balance - form a team of employees who can volunteer to organize periodical guest lectures on health, safety, higher education, family welfare, investments, etc. Hospitals used to extend support to corporates to give guest lectures free of cost on topics like stress management, eye screening, heart ailments, common ENT problems, gynecological issues, orthopedic problems, etc. Safety officers from the fire/police department can share some tips.

d) Children of your employees can participate in painting competitions, and the best paintings can be displayed in the bank's front office, beautifying the atmosphere and attracting customers. Respective employees will definitely feel happy.

e) Women's forum can be set up to work on their leadership development and how to face issues in the workplace, etc.

f) Organize an exclusive book fair in the bank's premises after office hours for the benefit of employees' families. Negotiate with vendors to donate some books out of their profit through such fairs for the bank's library.

g) Suggestion Box - set up a team that would be in touch with all employees to take suggestions in person and work for improvement.

Hope these points will be useful for your project.

All the best.

Suggest You Provide Some More Info:

Are all these employees based at one location or at multiple locations?

Are these employees from a common vertical of the organization or are they from various departments?

Is the idea behind this just to keep them engaged, or are you looking to do something that is of mutual benefit to the employer and the employee?

Whilst the conduct of an employee engagement survey is always technically possible, a number of salient issues need to be considered before undertaking such a commission:

• Raised Expectations
The topmost concern is that the very conduct of such a study will raise expectations among staff that "something will be done." If the eventual outcome falls short of these expectations, then there may be a backlash from staff.

• Focus of the Tool
A climate study is a very blunt tool unless properly constructed. A tool that tries to cover too many areas will not provide sufficient insight to develop a course of action to address the issues raised by the survey.

• Management Resolve to Address Issues Raised
This is the most critical issue. Management MUST be willing to constructively address problems highlighted in the study.

Autumn Jane

Hi, thank you for your replies. This project is for a renowned bank with around 7,700 employees, but they are at different locations and departments as well. The most important thing to consider here is the cost involved. It has to be strictly low-cost, high-engagement practices because later I have to work on the actual implementation as well. Please help.

I am rather surprised to find that you are giving information about your need in dribs and drabs. I also wondered how the number of staff employed has gone up by nearly 40% within a short time span from "..around 5000 employees over there..." in your first message to 7,700 in this message.

May we know whether you are expecting us to tell you the cost of implementing different activities?

Have a nice day.

Simhan

Nope, I'm sorry. It is 7700 including different locations and 5000 at that one location. The strategy is to be formulated for all the 7700 people in different departments, and most importantly, keeping low cost in mind.

Hi Buzz!

I feel you should make every employee first have faith in the organization they are working in. Have lectures and explain to them the goals of the organization. Take ideas from them on how you all can achieve it. Individually ask them how they would like to add value to the organization. Plan short-term achievable goals for each department. Organize for some fruitful returns/rewards for them. It can be by way of merit certificates, earning points for their appraisal, a best employee forum, bonus points for earning a day off, etc. You can incorporate an in-house newsletter covering various activities, growth results, etc. Also, you can arrange educational lectures for them on various topics of their concern. Health and education are important factors you can work on. I am sure people are concerned about their jobs and careers in the organization, so maybe you can implement in-house training sessions. Assign interested employees different topics and let them hold trainings, if you don't want to hire external agencies considering the cost factor. We often look outside for trainers, but you never know, you may find the right people in the company itself who can help you with the tasks. Develop a few competitions for the employees' children; it makes parents proud. Develop policies for the special days of the employees such as their anniversary, birthdays. For this, you can offer free movie tickets or personal greetings signed by the CMD or CEO, which will make them feel important. I hope you find my ideas good enough. All the best!

Regards, Jessy:icon4:

Hi seniors,

I am an MBA student and have taken up this project voluntarily. I was assigned this project by a senior from my college who is also the Associate VP-HR in the reputed bank. I believe she is considering some more people for this task and will choose the best. There is no stipend for this one.

In this first week, I am supposed to formulate certain low-cost, high engagement strategies for this recession and then later work on the actual implementation in the next 7 weeks.

So finally, with some research from the net and with the help of industry experts as I have been told to do, I have been able to formulate a few strategies which I am attaching. This one should be applicable for any number of employees, that's what has been told to me. The bank has around 7700 employees in all in various departments and locations. So please tell me:

1. If I should cut down on literature.

2. If certain points have been repeated.

3. If some more low-cost strategies can be implemented.

4. If actual implementation is possible.

I have tried to include as many high engagement strategies as possible, but some of them might involve cost, so I need to edit those because low cost, high engagement is the most important thing here. Just give some suggestions. I still need to format the document and mail it across to her by Monday morning. So just mailing here for your suggestions before I finally format and mail it to her. This is all the information I have. I have also found a Gallup engagement survey from the net. That's all. Please advise.

I am extremely sorry to state that I was not able to decipher your "mobile texting" language. It took so many messages to extract information about who you are, why you have undertaken the project, etc.

Have a nice day.

Simhan

Young man,

I have managed to decipher your SMS-texting language. Kindly use proper language in the future, as this is a professional forum, and members are very particular about decorum. I have gone through your entire draft submission, though not very critically. Although I am not sure how much of it has been 'borrowed' by way of "cut-paste" from the net, I find your efforts quite genuine and the quality of material very good in comparison to the trash being passed off as a project report that I have gone through in the past.

Instead of discussing your draft, I shall just edit (mainly delete partially) it along with suggestions wherever possible. Give me some time. Meanwhile, carry on with your research and your evaluation; you are on the right track. By the way, which B-school are you from?

Keep working.

Hello, sir,

Thank you for your guidance. I am from K J Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai. Being a student, I have a habit of using SMS language, but I will definitely avoid using it hereafter. I believe I have attached an exhaustive list of measures that can be taken, but I need to present only those that can be implemented at a low cost because in the next seven weeks, I have to work on the actual implementation. Since I have never worked in HR, please help me customize it according to the bank's needs. I believe conducting an employee engagement/satisfaction survey would be the first step to identify the reasons for dissatisfaction among employees and to assess their level of engagement. In my previous email, I mentioned the four areas where I believe improvement is needed, but if there are any other aspects to be added or deleted, please let me know. I have prepared it to the best of my ability and will email it to her by tomorrow morning. Therefore, please let me know the changes soon.

Thank you once again for your support, sir.

Thank you for sharing more details about yourself in "Proper English". Much appreciated.

I have taken a quick look at your Word file. Like Raj has pointed out, it is more of a cut-and-paste effort without a proper structure. Also, it's too long. Kindly take a look at the following sites:
- The first link no longer exists
- Leadership Development - Results focused Leadership thinking and practice from around the Globe
- Employee Engagement
- Employee Engagement RBS - A video at Royal Bank of Scotland

You need to answer 3 questions (What, Why, and How) clearly, yet concisely.

Have a nice day,
Simhan

They can use ESOP (Employee Stock Option Program) where companies give shares to the employees instead of monetary benefits so that the company can profit and employees can benefit in the long run. In addition, there is one more thing: this is an actual fact that happened at Purvankara Projects where they reduced employees' actual salary by 50%.